
As we highlighted earlier this week, another batch of Xbox 360 deals went live recently ahead of the old store's closure next month, and as a result we're seeing a lot of 360 owners picking up as many bargains as possible before July 29th.
That's all well and good, but what about buying DLC? That's sadly not quite as simple, as some Xbox 360 owners are finding that they can't access their paid DLC because of issues with how the store functions in 2024.
This is noted in a new video from Randomised Gaming, where the Xbox 360 owner shows how they've been unable to get the Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show Season Pass to download, even though they've bought it.
"So I purchased the Season Pass and then went to the in-game store, which then said all the DLC was free to download. Clicked to download them, and got the error message 80153003."
Status Code: 80153003: "This may mean that the download or purchase failed, or that the content is no longer available from the Store. If you can no longer find the content when searching Xbox.com, it may have been removed."
They go on to mention how they believe that buying the single DLC packs still works, but the Season Pass doesn't for whatever reason. It's been suggested that other games may suffer from this as well, such as Assassin's Creed 3, Life is Strange, Far Cry 4, L.A. Noire and Gears of War 3 (thanks to Pure Xbox user Fallingshadow for this tip!).
Fortunately, Microsoft does seem to be providing refunds to most people who have experienced issues like this, so if you find yourself in the same position, it's definitely worth getting in touch with Xbox Support.
username6127 on YouTube: "I had a similar issue with Life is Strange. It downloaded the Season Pass just fine, but no matter what I did, it would not let me acquire and install the episodes within the Season Pass. Whenever I hovered over an episode to download to my 360 (both in-game and in the store), it would act as if I never got it and asked me to purchase the individual episodes. I was able to get a refund on the Season Pass thankfully, but having to buy the episodes separately was annoying and left a mildly bad taste in my mouth...
Sadly, this is one of a series of issues with the Xbox 360 store that you might run into, with another problem including an inability to re-download certain titles. As mentioned in another video by Randomised Gaming (and also experienced by ourselves), a small number of games revert back to 0% while you're downloading them, and never seem to finish.
We've only got a month left until the store shuts down for good, so it seems pretty unlikely that Microsoft will remedy this before the closure date. Something to keep in mind over the coming weeks!
Have you come across any problems with the Xbox 360 store lately? Tell us in the comments below.
Comments 17
I slow painfull death hopefully the people effected get refunded
As the article says, from my experience buying single DLC packs has worked fine virtually all of the time, so just do that. Some DLC simply doesn't work, but that's the vast minority, and you can easily tell what DLC it is by going into your storage and seeing if the DLC has a yellow exclamation mark symbol or whatever next to it, even after the download has allegedly completed. Sometimes this indicates that you need to redownload, but sometimes this is a sign of the DLC just not working, period. I will also repeat the warning of season passes: I tried two of them, and both didn't work, not knowing at the time that this was a known issue. Luckily I got refunded, but yeah, just don't even bother attempting season passes, specifically those where you have to go in and get the DLC from in-game afterwards (hello, Gears of War 3 and Judgment). As for games, I'm happy to say that after buying a ton of them, the vast vast majority download just fine. Funny enough, the only ones I have had any trouble with thus far were all backwards compatible titles, so I fixed that problem by buying them on my Xbox One and then going into download history on my 360 to get them, and that way worked.
Hope this advice and warnings might help anybody who is doing any last minute buying on the 360! It's mostly fine as long as you know what to avoid, and are patient enough for certain things to give you an error code once or twice before like the third time it lets you download them. An unfortunate state of affairs that it is like this at all though, of course.
Still trying to download 6 or 7 games I bought 3-4 years ago without success due to the 0% reset issue; I keep trying from time to time on various 360's in the hope it will work eventually - it did for SW Episode 3, but not Max Payne 1 & 2, Manhunter, Red Dead Revolver amongst others
@GlasgowGuy Huh, from your experience it sounds like OG Xbox games in particular are having quite a few issues, none of which I have tried to buy yet. I'll keep that in mind. Luckily at least with those the original discs also work with the 360, but not everybody has easy access to those or wants to use those of course, so that's still rather annoying for some.
Do we know what DLC for Gears of War 3 is affected, @FraserG? I have Raams Shadow for the game, and probably more besides. Also, if you have downloaded it to your Series console, is it still affected? Lastly, if I uninstall it from my Series, does that mean I will not be able to reinstall it once the store closes? Thank you...
@Fiendish-Beaver Best to ask @Fallingshadow about that one - they mentioned that game in a discussion yesterday
As far as I'm aware, none of this is anything to do with Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S DLC (even if it originates from the 360 days). The problem is that the Xbox 360 store is just outdated and broken in some ways, so when you go to download certain content on there, it doesn't work.
Microsoft does a much better job maintaining the modern Xbox store, so you shouldn't run into anywhere near as many problems on modern consoles with backwards compatible content.
@Mustoe I think it's gotten a lot worse over time. Plus, it was just a different era... I didn't really start buying digital games until the end of the 360 cycle (aside from Xbox Live Arcade titles of course).
@Fiendish-Beaver I got all of the Gears of War 3 DLC on Xbox 360 a few weeks ago. From my experience, everything worked except for the Season Pass (the in-game DLC menu had a checkmark next to nothing after I got the season pass and I was not prompted anywhere for free downloads of the season pass content, but after I bought all of the DLC individually everything popped up with a checkmark so I am pretty darn sure it all worked), and the Lancer Omen weapon skin needed to be bought on Xbox One/Series and then re-downloaded on 360, as purchasing that one on 360 did not work at all for me. Of course, it's possible that your your experience might be different. But if you are playing GoW 3 on Xbox One/Series, the Xbox 360 store shutdown affects absolutely nothing, so if that is the case then you have nothing to worry about.
Well this doesn't inspire confidence.
Makes me concerned for any previously purchased season passes or even just games in general.
@FraserG Thanks for raising awarness of this you can also add L.A. Noire and Life Is Strange both have broken session passes users on true achievements have confirmed.
@Fiendish-Beaver on delisted games n64ra mentions they where unable to download the dlc for gears 3 via the season pass. 2 of the DLC are now free from the marketplace.
Forces of Nature Map Pack,
Fenix Rising Map Pack
so you can get them no trouble it's the other 3 which are the issue.
https://delistedgames.com/another-warning-about-xbox-360-marketplace-content-as-we-prepare-for-round-two-of-discounts/
As far as I am concerned given microsoft still sell items on the 360 store they have a duty of care to users who are still paying for content. That the items they buy still work.
Thank you, @Fallingshadow. That is appreciated...
Thank you, @BHPM. That's really helpful...
And their customer service is COMPLETE GARBAGE! When I called in, I explained to them I knew the store was closing next month and wanted to try and get what I could on my Xbox 360 before then. "Let us assure you that we'll take care of your issue" and she said Id hear something from them in 72 hours. I'm coming up on a week and nothing. Not an email, NOTHING! And of course to keep labor cheap, especially since Microsoft is an American HQ business, all of their work is outsourced so you
1) Can't understand much of anything anyway and
2) For a company that's been pushing philanthropy and accessability, if you're hard of hearing or have a hearing disability, there's no chat option either so you're screwed.
It just adds to the long list of how Xbox is constantly digging themselves a deeper grave, how out of touch they are, and how much they just don't understand business or their clientele. It's bad!
In contrast, I made a purchase error on the PlayStation Store, even a couple of times, PlayStation fixes it. If they can't they'll still contact you to let you know there's an issue.
Xbox? Nope. So get ready to try and resolve your issues and have assurances made they can't deliver on because their job is keep you from getting angry. (It's not the reps fault, they didn't create the problem unless they're getting snotty or short with you, which is sometimes even understandable because they could be getting chewed out so much because it's Microsoft that's incompetent so, it's not them, ITS XBOX and thus MICROSOFT.) Yeah, I'm waiting on their assurance they get the issue resolved. I called back and waited nearly ten minutes when they said it was two after they made the call back...... Lame
If the games can only be bought and played using the Xbox 360 what happens when that console breaks or the hard drive does with no store to re-download those games how are you going to get hold of them?
@Dampsponge Well, that would be where emulation comes in. Emulation plays a critical role in game preservation for precisely the reasons you list. Console hardware obsolesces, digital marketplaces are shuttered, physical disc supplies dry up and can only be obtained by paying exorbitant prices, etc. The emulation community does what platform owners don't or can't, preserving games media for posterity.
For the Xbox 360 specifically, options include hacked/modded hardware like RGH/JTAG consoles, or open source software designed to run on PC architecture like Xenia. Both options will become more compelling and necessary as time marches on.
As much as I enjoyed my x360 the Xbox store has gone down hill with the Metro redesign. And more and more games have been pulled over the years there is almost nothing on the x360 store at all. I think MS just can't keep the x360 store running in it's current form and they have no way to fix it. The only reason the ps3/vita stores are still available is Sony was likely able to downgrade the store to there original launch non web versions.
Mane, when will yall put need for speed most wanted, pro-sreet and carbon up for purchase and download, im seeing all these BS games from back in da day. Show some love. Im tryna purchase these games.
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